Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor Marvia Malik shot in Lahore.
She reports that two assailants started shooting as she was walking back from a pharmacy. Malik was traumatised even though she survived the attack.
Malik disclosed in her police statement that she had been receiving threats from unidentified callers.
She received these threats as a result of her outspoken advocacy for transgender rights in Pakistan. Due to her activism, many of her opponents wanted to silence her.
Malik had already gone to Islamabad or Multan after leaving Lahore out of fear for her life. She had travelled back to Lahore for surgery and thinks that the murder attempt was greatly influenced by her activity.
About Marvia Malik
Marvia Malik, who was bullied at school and later developed a rift with her family, was born in Lahore in 1997. She wanted to be a journalist or a lawyer.
She worked as a makeup artist to pay for her graduate education and earned a mass media degree from Punjab University.
She made headlines when, in March 2018, she was the first openly transgender person to hold the position of news anchor on a Pakistani news programme for Kohenoor News.
Malik has also worked as a model in the past and walked the Pakistan Fashion Design Council catwalk. Through her work, she hopes to alter how transgender individuals are perceived in society.
